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Treasure Hunting - Part Two
Treasure hunting begins at home. People regularly find famous
old books and valuable antiques in their attics, so get up there
and look. One couple opened their walls while remodeling, and
found them insulated with thousands of old and valuable movie
posters. In the thirties a theater owner ahd put them there. The
couple sold $200,000 worth of the posters, the last I heard.
There are many more ways to go treasure hunting. I used to
take the old telegraph pole insulators form along train tracks,
to sell for $4 each at an antique store. They were otherwise
being shot to pieces by hunters over the years. The colored glass
ones are usually the more valuable ones.
Panning For Gold
For $10 you can buy a gold pan, and start prospecting. It's
easier to see the gold in the green plastic ones. Most federal
lands are open to prospectors without a permit. I've only seen
gold in my pan in Canada (there isn't much gold in Michigan), but
people have better luck in the mountain streams of the southeast
and southwest. It's a nice way to spend an afternoon in any
case.
Treasure Hunting With A Metal Detector
Metal detectors start under $200. I've found a few hundred
coins, but none of them have been valuable ones. When the city
tore up old sidewalks, a woman in our town used her detector to
find coins . She sold one to a local coin shop for $700. A friend
tells me that her husband and her have found many pieces of gold
jewelry at the beach with their detector. It's also common to use
metal detectors to find gold nuggets in the southwest.
Treasure Hunting In The Streets
Collecting cans for 37 cents a pound is a tough way to make a
living. Here in Michigan and other states, however, there's a 10
cent deposit on every beverage container. During festivals I see
people with bags of hundreds of cans they collected in the parks
and garbage containers. Some travel here every year during the
Cherry Festival, just to collect returnable bottles and cans that
week.
I spoke to a man who went to the big concerts to collect beer
and pop cans in the parking areas. He said he makes over $100 in
a few hours (plus the time to take them to the store). Collecting
"returnables" can be an unpleasant way to make money, but an old
guy in town here tells me he pays the rent doing this.
Treasure hunting is about having the right frame of mind.
There are treasures to be found everywhere. I once found a chest
with foreign notes and coins in the crawl space under our house.
Hotel owners report that visitors tuck money in the bedside
bible, and forget to take it with them. Sometimes you just have
to look.
Steve Gillman has been studying every aspect of money for
thirty years. You can find more treasure hunting ideas, and more
interesting and useful information on his website; http://www.UnusualWaysToMakeMoney.com
 MORE RESOURCES updated Mon. June / 18 / 2018
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